Recording - February 2020 - 29

ADAT, SMUX II/IV Expander

Using the optical ADAT-SMUX II/IV
protocol, the 500ADAT is a full ADAT expansion box. It offers eight channels of expansion at up to 96kHz or four channels
of expansion at 192kHz to any similarly
equipped ADAT interface. This could be
the Cranborne 500R8; in my studio, I had
superb results using a Universal Audio
Apollo x8p, and the new Apollo x4 reviewed on page 30 of this issue.
Used as an expansion box, you can
fill the 500ADAT with preamps and
add eight more tracking inputs. You can
use it as a summing mixer as described
above, with or without 500 Series modules in line. Note that the Camden 500
Series Preamp works great here, as we
can all use some MOJO in our summing
signals from time to time! The third scenario is what I used the 500ADAT for
the most. That was sending signals out
to my 500 Series compressors, equalizers, and saturation boxes digitally over
ADAT and then back into my DAW as
hardware inserts in Cubase 10. It was a
joy not to have to patch signals in and
out on my physical patch bay.

The Digital Side

The 500ADAT features converters and
clocking with a dynamic range of 121dB
A-weighted (AES17 method, 20Hz - 20kHz),
a frequency response of 2.2Hz to >80kHz
(-1dB), THD+N of <0.00032% (-110dB) @
-4dBFS, 20Hz-40kHz, 1kHz, A-weighted,
and an impressive <0.5 picoseconds of clock
jitter. There are BNC clock inputs and outputs
on the rear of the unit, and the two pairs of
ADAT sockets. As a converter/expander it's
clean, clear, detailed, and it sounds really nice.
The clock source and rate are set on the
rear of the unit via small slider switches. The
500ADAT does not perform any internal
clock switching. Even when not set as the
master clock, you must switch the unit manually to match the external clock rate. In my
opinion, this is the only downside I could find
with this unit. In my workflow as a mixing
engineer, I work on projects that come in at
different sample rates, and sometimes I work
with multiple rates in a single day. This means
that the 500ADAT needs to sit on top of my
rack. It would be impractical to access the
switches conveniently if the unit was racked.
[According to Cranborne, a forthcoming app
will be able to make sample rate and clock

changes via the currently dormant rear USB
port coming later on this year-great news!]

C.A.S.T.

The final feature of the 500ADAT is
the Cranborne C.A.S.T. system. This is
a CAT 5-based feature that links multiple 500ADAT and 500R8 units together, and makes use of the company's
N22 and N22H expanders, which are
audio snakes that carry four channels
of analog audio or headphone mixes
over Cat 5 cables.

Conclusions

The Cranborne Audio 500ADAT is a
forward-thinking and feature-rich device
that performs all of its functions spectacularly. From its summing function to its
eight-channel expansion, 500 Series mixing and routing functions and even its dual-channel headphone amp, nothing feels
like an afterthought or a half-baked add
on. When you factor in the C.A.S.T. functionality, Cranbourne has an impressive
configurable system on its hands.
Price: $1499
More from: cranborne-audio.com

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Recording - February 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - February 2020